>> forgotten in a fading file, a killer waits to be caught. a case waits to be cracked. >> reporter: they we . >> they were the final moments with her young son. >> he said i love you mom. i said i love you, too. >> his body found in the river. did he find trouble fishing? she didn't buy it. >> the first thing you take is

your fishing pole. he didn't. >> years went by with no arrest, yet he made a vow. >> it was murder and he would prove it. >> she kept the faith, despite some outrageous theorys. >> they ask if he drank. he's 11 years old. >> right. >> but could he keep his promise and find out what really happened to her son? >> i blame myself for a long time because i let him go. >> a mother's mission to learn the truth. >> to hear that, what did that feel like for you finally? tonight, "cracked -- the case of feel like for you finally? tonight, "cracked -- the case of the little boy lost." captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> good evening. i'm ann curry. a smart, fun loving boy disappeared. three weeks his body appeared. the truth finally did come out. the moment you meet the boy's mother, you will understand why. here's hoda kotb.

>> reporter: flint, michigan, where the steely flint river winds through the heart of car country, where on a beautiful spring day more than 20 years ago, one little boy mysteriously vanished. how? why? years passed, decades, the water kept its secrets. memory faded and evidence disappeared, until all that was left was one mother's love and her fragmented dreams of her child calling her, haunting her, and pushing her to find the truth about what had happened to him. when christopher alan brown, whom they called alan, was born in november 1973, his mother brenda simpson could not have been happier. was it love right away?

>> oh, yeah, i just loved him with all of my heart. >> reporter: brenda thought her baby looked especially good in yellow. >> he brought so much joy into my life. >> reporter: when alan was 1, brenda separated from his father, jestine brown. they later divorced. in 1978, she married an auto worker named harvey, who says he was smitten with her little boy. >> so when i fell in love with her, i fell in love with him. this was my son as much as it was hers. i mean, i raised him. i helped to mold him into the little man that we had hoped he was going to become. >> reporter: alan excelled at school and sports. he loved pacman, fishing and listening to his fraif favorite songs by chaka khan. both brenda and harvey had good jobs on the assembly line at general motors. alan had one little brother and another on the way. alan's father, jestine brown, had also remarried, a woman named rosalind pettiford, and they had two little girls.

in these sorts of blended families, where there's divorce, it's kind of complicated. who gets to see the children when? >> well, i was going to have primary custody of alan, and he had visitation. >> reporter: jestine's sister says alan was close to his dad. >> he loved spending time with his father on the weekends or during school breaks. >> reporter: but the relationship between brenda and alan's stepmom was tense. >> they didn't like each other, didn't like each other at all. but brenda would always let alan come over to his dad's house and, you know, spend time with him. she would never keep him back from his dad. >> reporter: in 1985, alan was 11. when easter rolled around, brenda was surprised when he told her he did not want to spend the week at his father's as they had planned. >> but his dad kept calling him, and then he told him, "i'm going to take you camping and fishing." >> reporter: those sound like the magic words for -- >> they were the magic words. yes, he packed up all his stuff. he was just happy, and he came over and he hugged me.

he says, "i love you, mom." >> reporter: and that's the last that you saw of him was that day? >> yes. >> reporter: that was monday. on friday, brenda came home late and was alarmed to find her sisters waiting on her front porch. >> i rolled the window down, and i was like, "what's wrong?" i know something is wrong for them to be at my house at 11:00. >> her sister said alan was missing. and it was like, well, how can that be? missing from what? missing how? he's supposed to be with his dad. >> reporter: brenda called alan's father demanding to know what had happened. he explained what he knew, that he and alan had not yet gone fishing, and that while he was at work that day his wife rosalind was home with the kids. rosalind said that at some point she bought mcdonald's, put it in the kitchen, told the children to go in and eat and left. when she returned home a few hours later, alan was missing. she looked for him around the neighborhood and then called police. >> all i care about right now is

finding alan. >> reporter: while police launched an investigation, brenda and her relatives organized a neighborhood search party. >> we're going door to door, talking to people, showing his picture, asking anyone if he's seen him, and everyone is saying, "no." >> reporter: sergeant francis tull had almost no training as an investigator but suddenly found himself in charge of a major case. >> i get there and i start talking to the officers to find out what they had come up with. >> reporter: sergeant tull's first thought was runaway or possible kidnapping, and so the fbi was called in. tull says they worked together. every lead went nowhere. you probably put together a sort of profile of who is this child. who was that boy in your mind's eye? who was he? >> a missing, scared little boy and that we needed to find him.

>> reporter: days passed with no sign of alan. frantic for help brenda did something she would do again and again in the years to come, she called the local newspaper. "flint journal" cub reporter jeff smith was sent to her house. >> you could just tell she was just drained, but this is something she was determined to do. i have to find my child. >> reporter: this story was one of jeff's first front-page bylines, but it did not bring brenda any closer to her son. one week passed and then brenda appeared on local tv. >> please, please. he wouldn't get in the car with anybody. somebody had to take him. >> you must have had a lot of conversations with god during these really difficult days. what were you asking for or praying for? >> i was praying to get my baby back, and i wanted him to be alive, but after about 17 days, 18 days -- >> reporter: what were you praying for then?

>> then i prayed that the lord would give me his body so that i could bury him. >> reporter: on april 30th, 18 days after alan disappeared, sergeant tull expanded his search efforts to include this peaceful bend in the flint river three miles from alan's father's home. by noon word came they'd found a body. brenda's sad prayer had come true. >> with the clothing description, deep down you knew. >> reporter: you knew. >> you know, your heart starts sinking. >> reporter: reporter jeff smith raced to the scene. >> you could see law enforcement people were out there with the tarp, or the body bag, it was just very quiet, just very kind of solemn. >> reporter: what did you lose that day? >> oh, a big chunk out of my heart. i lost all my dreams that i had for him. >> reporter: brenda's grief was overwhelming but so were her questions.

alan was not the type of child to wander off. why had he been at the river? how did he get there? discovering his body was the beginning of a mystery that would haunt her for decades. >> it didn't make sense. none of it made sense because he wouldn't have went out there without permission. none of this is adding up. >> reporter: coming up, the investigation begins and tips pour in about alan going off with a stranger. one resembling a known serial killer. >> how did they describe the guy? >> white male, you know, in his 30s. >> reporter: when "cracked -- the case of the little boy lost" continues. does your hair color feel as healthy as it looks? it will with natural instincts. it's clinically proven. 80% of women agreed that natural instincts made their hair feel softer. the ammonia-free antioxidant formula actually protects hair from dryness, leaving it softer and healthier looking.

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>> reporter: 11-year-old alan brown was buried on may 10th, 1985. >> there was standing room only at that church, all his little friends were there, and flowers. >> reporter: it looked like a terrible accident. alan cowl not swim. somehow he must have wandered over to the river and fallen in. a routine autopsy concluded the boy had died from accidental drowning. but that was not the end of it. >> they came to me and asked me did he drink. i said, "drink?" >> reporter: they asked if he drank? he's 11 years old. >> right. >> reporter: the question was asked because alan's toxicology report came back with results that were highly unusual. his blood alcohol level was .15, twice the level considered

legally drunk for an adult, and there was a second reading, .07, for isopropyl or rubbing alcohol. the investigator in charge of the case, sergeant francis tull, says he argued with the medical examiner to change alan's cause of death to homicide, but the m.e. refused. >> he felt that a young boy got into the parent's liquor cabinet or got with some friends and they had some alcohol and was part of the drinking. >> reporter: despite that ruling, tull says he and the fbi continued to investigate starting with conversations with family members like alan's stepmother rosalind. >> you're aware of this case, is that correct? >> yes. >> reporter: he was swamped with tips, most of them useless, and with reports from people saying they had seen alan get into a car.

>> we had several vehicles, a white van, a green picp truck, that people said they saw him get into. >> reporter: how did they describe the guy? >> white male, you know, in his 30s. >> reporter: that description matched a serial killer on the loose in nearby detroit who forced young boys to drink alcohol, raped and then killed them. but tull says he couldn't prove the man had been in flint. were you thinking it was a stranger? >> i never ruled that out, but my most focus was on -- had to be somebody he knew. >> reporter: meantime, brenda was wrestling with her own suspicions and doubts. she had begun to wonder about alan's resistance to visiting his father and stepmother rosalind that day. what had she missed? what did he tell you about the visits? >> well, most of the time he would talk about spending time with his dad. but, as he got older, he started acting a little different, a little strange. >> he would come in and he would be kind of down, a little depressed. we'd ask him, "what's wrong?" and he'd say, "nothing."

we used to call it the "over to my daddy's house" syndrome. and it would pass, by the next day he'd be back to normal. >> reporter: in her mind, brenda replayed over and over rosalind's story about what happened the day alan disappeared. >> she said she went to mcdonald's and got them some food. when she got back home, she was in a hurry to go to this job interview. so she took the food in the house and came back out and told alan to go in. he didn't go in. >> reporter: for brenda, the story just didn't make sense. alan loved mcdonald's, she said, and more importantly she just couldn't believe he would have wandered three miles away to the river. >> alan wasn't that type of child. he didn't go anywhere without permission. >> reporter: you didn't like her anyway, did you? >> no, i didn't like how she treated my son. he was so loving and caring. and all he wanted to do was please people. >> reporter: how come you didn't call your ex-husband and say, "well, what's going on?" >> well, i did.

>> reporter: what did he say? >> he thought i was just psycho. he thought i just needed someone to blame. i just don't want to accept. >> reporter: the reporter at "the flint journal" had his own questions about rosalind's story. he'd gone to visit her for an interview a few days after alan's body was found. >> she just stood in the doorway, kind of blocking the doorway. the entire time i spoke to her, she never looked me in the eye. >> reporter: he wondered about what rosalind wasn't saying. >> i just knew there was something up, that she knew something. even brenda said she just thought, well, maybe they went down to the river. he fell in and she panicked. so she was trying to cover up the fact that she was down at the riverside. sergeant tull had little more than the reporter did -- rumors, hunches, suspicions. he was very short on facts. >> other than the toxicology, showing the alcohol in his system, there was no evidence for anything.

>> reporter: alan's case was in a kind of limbo, classified as an accident, and yet not officially closed. as the weeks and the months went on, and you're not getting a lot of traction, did it start moving back on the priority list? >> i had no support from anybody on that particular case because it was ruled an accidental drowning. >> reporter: five months after alan disappeared brenda gave birth to her third son. by now she was totally preoccupied by finding out what happened to alan, saving everything important to him in a small blue suitcase. she also began unannounced visits to the police. every time you show up, two or three times a week, on the phone, what are they telling you repeatedly? >> that they're investigating it. >> reporter: what had once been holidays on brenda's calendar were now rituals of mourning, sad visits to alan's grave on his birthday, and the anniversary of his death. often, brenda would play his music, take out his pictures and cry. >> i didn't know how to chase that pain away that she was enduring. i didn't know what to do.

>> reporter: four years after alan's death the gm plant where brenda worked closed. there was no new information on what had happened to alan. living in flint had become painful. >> in my gut i knew that whoever did this i had trusted my son with. alan didn't go anywhere with strangers. i believe someone did something to him and i believed it was really, really close. i couldn't live here and not know who that person was. >> reporter: the family packed up and moved to california, and there alan began to haunt brenda in her dreams. >> it was like he was trying to give me a sign. i'd be saying, "tell me what happened, tell me what happened," and just as he would get ready to tell me, i'd wake up. >> reporter: alan couldn't tell her what happened, but what about a witness? she gives you a statement and basically said that she saw

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>> reporter: cases get cold. this one was ice cold. i mean, it was ice cold. did it ever, like, kind of resurface over the years? or did it stay pretty much dormant? >> for the most part it sat on the corner of my desk so i would never forget it. >> reporter: now living in california, brenda simpson periodically visited flint. usually around april 12th, the day her son alan disappeared in 1985, using the media to stir up publicity for alan's case. she appeared on tv with lead investigator sergeant francis tull around 1990. >> i'm hoping with this interview here that maybe someone that didn't want to talk five years ago will decide to come forward. >> reporter: then again by herself a few years later. >> we'll never give up. >> reporter: jeff smith had now been a reporter for "the flint

journal" for near lay decade. >> she called me out of the blue. >> reporter: brenda had come to flint to post fliers seeking information about her son. >> i said, "of course i'll do something on that." i kind of thought that after all these years it was probably slim to no chance of them getting any new information. but there's no way i was going to tell a mother to give up hope of ever finding out what happened to their child. i can't do that. >> reporter: and as always, brenda called the cops. >> they knew my voice. the girls that answered the phone would say, "hold on, brenda. just a minute, brenda." >> it's brenda. what am i going to say to her? >> reporter: what did you say? >> "i know brenda, i'm trying." you know, something to that effect. >> reporter: were you always telling the truth when you said, "i'm trying?" >> yes, i never stopped trying. >> reporter: brenda didn't either, in part, she says, because in her dreams alan would not let her rest. >> he never aged in the dream. he was still 11, just like he was when he left that day. you know, it wasn't like he was

in any pain. it was just that drive in the dream to keep pushing. >> reporter: brenda tried to focus on her two surviving sons, her husband and her job. years passed and her sons grew up and left home. the little boy in her dreams became harder to ignore. >> i knew what he was pushing me to do. he was pushing me to come back to michigan. >> reporter: and so in 2002, 17 years after alan's death, brenda and harvey moved back to flint. brenda retraced her well-worn path to alan's grave. she quit work so she could concentrate full time on finding out what happened to her son. she called the police department department. she didn't hear back so she called again and again. >> now they're trying to dodge my phone calls. they're not answering. >> reporter: sergeant tull says he gave brenda all his phone numbers, work, cell and home, and always returned her calls, but brenda still felt she wasn't being heard.

she says she finally left him an angry voicemail. >> "i'm coming to put a tent up outside your door and no one else is coming in until you deal with me." >> reporter: brenda says that got his attention, and he finally called back. she asked him to bring alan's case file to her house, including the autopsy photos, which she wanted to look at for the very first time. >> got to see it in my mind. i've got to know that that's my child. >> reporter: the photos were devastating, but brenda found something else in the file that changed her mind about the entire investigation. this statement taken from a woman claiming to have seen alan's stepmother, rosalind and her brother forcing alan to drink alcohol and sexually abusing him in the months before he died. the woman also said she overheard them boast about forcing alan to "walk the plank." "walk the plank" was the term that was used in the statement. that was sitting right there in

file the whole time. >> yeah, ever since may of '85. >> reporter: sergeant tul was the person who conducted the 1985 interview with that woman. when we asked him about it, he had only a vague recollection of the statement and the woman who the woman who had when we asked him about it, he had only a vague recollection of the statement and the woman who had given it 20 years earlier. she comes to the station, gives you a statement basically saying that she saw rosalind plying this kid with alcohol. did that set off alarm bells with you? >> absolutely, i don't remember a lot of that detail, but if

that was the case there had to be more to it. we would have definitely focused on that. >> reporter: tull says he and the fbi followed up on a lot allegations at the time of alan's death. none of them led anywhere, but brenda couldn't believe that statement had sat untouched for all those years. >> so, i tell him, "well, what are we going to do?" i don't want him to know how upset i am. >> reporter: you're trying to be calm. >> i'm trying to be calm because i know i've got to do something. so he tells me, "well, i'm going to take it back and have some more people look at it." i said, "okay." >> there is no evidence he swallowed water. >> reporter: by this time brenda was completely disillusioned with tull and his efforts, but it no longer mattered. tull retired, and the case was assigned to a new detective who asked her to be patient. soon, she says, he, too, was dodging her calls. so it gave you more fire. >> right, whenever they told me no it made me fight harder. >> reporter: once again, brenda turned to reporter jeff smith at "the flint journal." >> she called me up again. didn't have to identify herself because i recognized her voice. >> reporter: jeff went to brenda's house and looked through the files. >> that really kind of shook her world when she saw the notes. she just knew at that point that the police had really boggled the case, really dropped the ball there. >> reporter: he wrote this article, published on the 19th anniversary of alan's death, saying brenda was threatening to "turn up the pressure on police" and to "start singing" about specifics of the case if authorities did

not make headway soon. the next day, 9:00 a.m. sharp, came a call from the police department asking brenda to come in to talk. and there she met the man who would become her hero. >> jerry parks. >> reporter: you smile when you say his name. >> he was a godsend. he was the first person that listened to me. it didn't take him very long to tell me that it was murder and that he would prove it. >> reporter: but how? he started by talking with one of the last people to see alan alive. >> i blamed myself for a long time because i let him go. >> reporter: when "cracked -- the case of the little boy lost" continues. take me to 5th and grand as slowly as possible. [ horn honks ] get me to the airport, and don't step on it. ♪ congress and main, and i'm not in a hurry.

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>> reporter: 19 years had passed by the time detective gerald parks took over the investigation into the death of alan brown. parks was retired and worked as an advisor to the flint cold case squad for a dollar a month. let's be clear, every month for all your work you get paid one dollar? a month? >> right. at the end of the year i get a little better than $11 because uncle sam's got to get his share. >> reporter: brenda says parks did something no one else had done, listened to her and

included her in the investigation. >> he started piecing it together. he started calling me, asking me about people. >> reporter: detective parks began by digging into the little blue suitcase brenda had filled over the years with information about alan. >> she had, amazingly, a lot of stuff that really helped us in our case. >> reporter: parks says right away he agreed this was no accidental drowning. >> you're about three miles from the river from the house. if you're going to go fishing, and you're a young 11-year-old boy, the first thing you'd take was your fishing pole. he didn't. >> i'm going to start with friday and we'll go from there. >> reporter: parks reviewed the case files. he constructed a timeline for the day alan disappeared, starting with the moment his stepmom, rosalind, picked him up at his aunt's house. >> he was with his aunt the day that he disappeared. we talked to the aunt. she's very, very good. >> rosalind came to pick him up.

>> reporter: "dateline" also talked to alan's aunt. she remembers quite clearly what happened when rosalind picked him up that afternoon. >> he was just crying and bawling his eyes out. he didn't want to go with her. it was like, she's hollering at him, forcing him to get into the car. i've never seen him act like that before. he was beating on the back of the window, screaming and hollering, "aunt jeannie, please don't let me go. don't let me go." eventually, they drove away. >> he had an intuition he was in trouble. he felt there something was wrong, that he wasn't liked, he wasn't wanted, and he had a fear. >> i blamed myself for a long time because i let him go. i could had have let him stayed, you know, maybe i don't know. you can't alter god's life. >> reporter: parks' interest in rosalind increased. he studied the statements she had made in 1985 and brought her in for questioning. the story she told him now was very different from what she had said back then. times changed, facts changed,

very basic facts. in 1985 she said her mother was at work. >> i went to get my mother from the fisher auto body plant and picked her up at 2:42. >> reporter: and now. >> your mother lived with you? >> mm-hmm. >> she wasn't working at that time then? >> no. >> you sure? >> mm-hmm. >> you can't remember a lie. you can remember things you do forever and ever because it's something you actually did. but when you try to remember a lie, it's very difficult. >> reporter: and then there was this, the statement from the woman claiming to have seen rosalind and her brother, montel pettiford, force alan to drink and sexually molest him in the months before his death. when parks tracked her down, she provided him with a bigger tip, saying a woman named cathy, who had been married to montel, may have actually seen whatever happened that day.

one of the goals was to find whoever this cathy person was. >> well, that wasn't easy because cathy had left the state, and she wasn't easy to find. >> jerry found her. jerry found her. >> reporter: parks and his investigators finally found cathy in north carolina and interviewed her in the fall of 2004. what she told them would be the first major crack in the case. >> yes. i was there. >> reporter: for the first time, cathy told what she had seen the day alan disappeared. she was now divorced from montel, but back in 1985 they were living here at this house in flint. cathy said she was feeding her infant son when montel and rosalind came into the house supporting alan between them. >> he was sick. they had to help him in the house. >> reporter: cathy said the two brought alan into the spare bedroom. next, montel came into the

kitchen carrying a small brown bottle with skull and crossbones on it. >> it seemed like he just opened the bottle and poured it in there. >> what did he put it in, do you remember? >> kool-aid. >> reporter: she said montel poured clear liquid from the bottle into grape kool-aid and also into eggs, which were given to christopher alan. >> he just poured it in. >> so when he did this he went in and he had -- did you see chris drink this? >> yeah, chris drank it. >> reporter: why had she kept this horrible secret all these years? cathy said montel frequently beat her, and on that day he held up the small bottle of poison and told her that if she told anyone she and her baby would be next. parks called rosalind back in, saying he now had an eyewitness implicating her in murder, and he threatened her with prison for life if she didn't start talking. >> you know, i knew from day one i was going to get caught up in this.

>> finally, rosalind's story comes out. what did that feel for you finally? how about we open up a whole can of getting it done? and get this year's colors up on the wall...this year. let's get better prices... and better paint. let's break out the drop cloths, rollers, brushes, and tape. let's start small. then go big. >> i got an eyewitness.

>> i did not do it. >> i got an eyewitness. >> they lying. >> reporter: in november of 2004, retired detective gerald parks brought rosalind brown in yet again to discuss the death of her 11-year-old stepson, alan. this time he had something he hadn't had before, incriminating eyewitness testimony placing her at the scene.

>> they are lying. i did not do that, none of that. >> reporter: parks and his investigators pushed. >> what choice do you have here? going to prison for the rest of your life? >> reporter: after more than four hours of interrogation, rosalind admitted she and her brother, montel, had taken alan to the river that day, but she blamed alan's death on her brother. >> i took montel to the river. he threw him in. i didn't see him. i didn't poison him. i never touched the boy, and i went home. now you talk to montel. he's going to say i did it. go ahead, i'll be your witness. i'll take your polygraph, whatever you want me to do. can i please go now? >> reporter: from your perspective, after all of these years, all of your suspicions, all of your fight, you learn that your son was, in fact, poisoned, and it looks like your ex-husband's wife may be responsible. >> right. >> reporter: to hear that, what did that feel like for you, finally? >> i was right all the time. that's what it felt like.

felt like i was right all the time. >> reporter: detective parks now had the big break he needed, enough evidence to get court permission to exhume the little boy's body, to get a new autopsy, and to finally have alan's death classified as a homicide. he took all of that to the district attorney. >> we think we know what happened. we think it was a homicide, and we think we know who did it, but that's still not enough. >> reporter: in may of 2005, stating there simply was not enough evidence for a conviction, the district attorney declined to indict rosalind brown and her brother, montel. >> for the past three months simpson said she has waited hoping an arrest warrant would be issued, but late last week she learned her dreams of closing the case once and for all would have to wait a little longer. >> i felt like somebody kicked me in my gut. i was so devastated. i got on the couch, and i laid

there for about two days. didn't hardly eat, didn't hardly drink anything. finally, after a couple a days, i got off the couch, and i said, "pick yourself up. you have one more fight left in you." i told my husband, "we go downtown," and i started the process of trying to get to the attorney general's office. i'm not taking no for an answer. >> reporter: so if the d.a. tells you no, you go to the attorney general. there's someone else. >> i'll find another door to kick open. >> reporter: and behind that door was a young assistant attorney general, oronde patterson, who found 22 years of accumulated evidence now squarely in his lap. >> my first thought was, "it's not going to go anywhere. it's not going to result in any charges. let me give an honest effort, go through the box, review it, write a memorandum stating why we couldn't do it." >> reporter: the prosecutor had not counted on brenda. >> nothing in this world was just going to stop her from

pursuing this. that was her son. >> reporter: she called him weekly, sometimes daily. his updates gradually convinced her that he was taking alan's case seriously. soon she confided that her son was still haunting her in her dreams. >> he's still coming. >> reporter: he's still saying the same kind of thing? >> right, but i'm feeling like i'm on the right track. >> a free spirit. >> reporter: in april of 2006, brenda released 21 yellow balloons, one for each year alan had been dead. but patterson wasn't sure he had enough evidence to prosecute. so much depended on eyewitness cathy pettiford, and ever since that day in 1985 she had been in and out of mental institutions. as a witness, she was less than ideal. >> i would just go over and over and over again what cathy had to say. i wondered whether she was telling me the truth or whether she was making this up.

>> reporter: to see for himself, the prosecutor conducted a series of interviews with cathy. as she would later say at a hearing, the day alan disappeared, she saw montel and rosalind give him poisoned kool-aid and eggs, and then saw them come out of the bedroom with the boy, whom she called chris, in montel's arms. >> is christopher conscious at that time? >> no. >> is he saying anything? >> no. >> is his body moving at all? >> no. >> reporter: cathy said rosalind and montel left, and when they returned their shoes and pant legs were muddy. >> did either montel or rosalind say something to you? >> montel told me he drowned him. >> what was rosalind saying or doing? >> she was crying. >> reporter: the prosecutor decided that even with cathy's history of mental illness, she would hold up on the stand. her testimony was crucial. >> the scientific evidence helped her.

she helped the scientific evidence. >> reporter: for patterson and for detective parks there was one last looming question -- why? to poison a little boy by pouring poison into the scrambled eggs seems so outrageous and preposterous that you wonder why someone would do that. what did you think is the motive here? >> well, there's a lot of jealousy, a lot of jealousy. >> reporter: but both investigator jerry parks and prosecutor oronde patterson have another theory. they say it's possible that alan had been sexually abused by rosalind and montel, and that he was about to tell his mother. if that's the case, they killed him not out of jealousy, but to protect themselves. in may of 2007, patterson charged rosalind and montel with first-degree murder. he says it was gratifying to give brenda the news. >> she was very happy. i guess happy is an understatement as to how she felt. >> there was a lot of, "yip, yip, and hurray."

you know? >> i'm crying, it just seemed like all a sudden the trees are greener. the grass is greener, i knew they had the right people. all i could say was, "thank you, jesus. thank you, jerry." >> reporter: after 22 long years, brenda simpson was about to have her day in court. >> reporter: but would it bring the justice she so badly wanted? >> i just -- i just -- i broke down. >> also tonight, cold case number two. it was the night of the summer solsti solstice, the night he disappeared. h. >> he was very light latered, good sense of humor. genuine good person. >> a bright college kid, whose group of friends dabbled in something strange -- the dark arts of the occult. one young man missing and soon another. kidnapped? what kind of mystery was this?

>> it just didn't make sense. >> the trail would lead to an eerie place of danger and evil. >> that dark tunnel would be a terrible place in your life. >> tonight, a famous crime no l novelist returns to the case. what secrets will be found in the dark? >> this is a place where anything can happen. she's not speaking to me right now. says i'm too obnoxious.

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>> reporter: august of 2008, brenda simpson's decades-long battle for justice for her son, alan, was nearing an end. alan's stepmother rosalind brown and her brother, montel pettiford, were about to be tried for murder. >> it was just like 100 pounds was lifting off of me. i've been walking around with these two bricks, but i can't put them down. i've got to keep going, i got to keep going. >> reporter: prosecutor oronde patterson had lined up what he hoped was a strong case, a toxicology report showing alcohol in alan's blood, an eyewitness and rosalind's own statement that she and montel brought alan to the river that day. still, he worried it wasn't enough. >> we could lose this case, and so i was mindful of that from the very beginning. >> reporter: mark latchana, rosalind's court-appointed

defense attorney, felt pressure, too. he believed his client was innocent. just so i'm clear, you believe that alan died of an accidental drowning? >> correct, she was an unlikely murder defendant. the majority of my clients are not women in their middle 50s. meeting her, she talked about her grandkids and her kids, her career and husband. >> reporter: rosalind's lawyer set about debunking the toxicology report. he called in an expert who cited studies showing the alcohol in alan's blood could have been created naturally, a normal by-product of a body decomposing in the water. when it came to witness cathy pettiford, he questioned how anyone with her history of mental illness could accurately remember what happened one day 20 years earlier. >> poison out of a skull and crossbones bottle. i've never seen that in anything other than, you know, bugs bunny or the cartoons. >> reporter: as for rosalind's admission that she and montel

had been down to the water that day with alan, her lawyer believed that was coerced by police. >> that statement came at the end of about 4 1/2 hours of an interview with one detective. the statement was made after various different threats were made to her. threats of, "spend the rest of your life in prison," threats to be prosecuted. >> reporter: and the defense had one big advantage -- motive. in court, the prosecution never brought up any allegations of sexual abuse. rosalind's lawyer argued there was no compelling reason for her to kill a little boy. does your client have any history of violence? >> none. in fact, nobody, not one witness, had ever said that they saw her even spank this child. so the argument in closing argument was how do you get from, not even disciplining him with physical punishment to a plot to poison and murder him and put him in the river? it just doesn't make sense. >> reporter: eight days of testimony, two days of jury deliberations.

and then for both defendants -- a one-word verdict -- guilty. >> it sounded good hearing it. i just broke down. i just broke down, a floodgate opened. >> you couldn't help but cry because you think, after all these years, after all this suffering, after all this pleading, we finally got the justice that alan deserves. >> reporter: the prosecutor was 13 when alan died. long time coming, wasn't it? >> long, long time coming. >> reporter: alan's father, jestine brown, stayed married to rosalind all those years and attended court every day. reporter jeff smith, now in the insurance business, also attended the trial. >> i kind of feel like the media really kept it out there and

kind of put pressure on the court system to see this through. >> reporter: in part, brenda blames the original investigator, sergeant francis tull, saying she would not have needed media pressure if he had done his job early on. tull says he was hampered by the medical examiner's finding that alan's death was accidental and says this case was always in his heart. if she were sitting in this seat instead of me what would you say to her? >> i'd tell her i was sorry that i did not do this for her. >> reporter: that is not something you hear every day. sergeant tull testified at the trial and spoke to brenda briefly afterwards. >> she looked at me and said she was disappointed. and i said, "so was i," in myself. >> reporter: takes a pretty big guy to say that. >> well, it's the truth. when it's the truth, it's easier to say. i didn't solve the case for her. i should have focused on rosalind more. i should have picked up that extra piece.

>> reporter: brenda will never get the years back she spent fighting for alan, but at long last her crusade is over. did you ever hear from alan in your dreams after? >> no, i haven't dreamt about him. it's just like he's at peace now. >> reporter: time has finally washed away some of the pain caused on the banks of the flint river, and one extraordinarily devoted mother has released the last balloon in memory of her son. i think nine out of ten women after 15 years, 16 years, probably would have stopped. >> i couldn't stop. i had to do it for alan. >> reporter: what's in you? >> i loved him, and i just didn't think he deserved to die

like that. so i had to fight for him. no one else could do it but me. no one else was going to care like i cared. no one was going to push like i was going to push. so i just had to do it. >> oush next story centers on a cold case in los angeles, once covered bay crime reporter michael connelly. he went on to become a best-selling crime novelist, but there was one case he never forgot. and even the detectives that worked that case say it was stranger than any piece of fiction. here's keith morrison. >> reporter: tucked away in the hills north of downtown los angeles is a place they call the "manson tunnel." it's actually an old railroad

tunnel. but venture inside if you dare, see the blackened walls adorned with, graffiti, cryptic drawings and strange otherworldly symbols. there were rumors for years about the occult gatherings said to happen here, satanic worship complete with animal sacrifices. it was after the grisly crimes of charles manson that people started applying his name to the tunnel. but it's what happened here in the grimy darkness two decades ago that still haunts los angeles police detective rick jackson. >> if you've talked to any detective that's worked homicide for an extended period of time, there's still cases that still bother them. and i think about this case a lot. >> reporter: it was june 23, 1990, the night that fell at the

end of the summer solstice. the longest day of the year. a day jackson is still trying make sense of. >> i get a call at home from my boss. and he said, you know, "we have a case. you and frank are up." he explained about a john doe murder victim had been found. >> reporter: frank is frank garcia, another veteran lapd detective and jackson's partner. john doe was the body of an unidentified young man found dead inside the tunnel. >> he had multiple stab wounds and his throat was slit. but initially, from just looking at the scene from a distance, because of the amount of blood, it looked like perhaps, he could of got hit by a train. >> reporter: but in this dark, eerie tunnel, with all it spooky symbols, it quickly became clear, this was no accident. >> actually, his throat was slashed twice. and it just looked like potentially it could be a satanic-related case, or at least some kind of a cult killing. >> reporter: a possible cult killing, in the mason tunnel? l.a.'s local news media pounced on the story, including a young newspaper reporter, and aspiring crime novelist named michael connelly.

>> i was thinking that it would be a terrible place to end your life, that was for sure. i was thinking about being in there -- the darkness, and -- and what that would've been like. >> reporter: who was this young man who died such a violent death in that dark tunnel? john doe #135 was taken to the coroner's office for an autopsy. but back up again to the summer solstice. across town in la's sprawling san fernando valley the parents of two grown children were getting ready for bed. >> i received this call late at night. there was a strange voice that i didn't recognize. and said, "we have your son. unless you give us $100,000 by 5:00 tomorrow, he will die." >> reporter: the parents were gayle and kay baker. their son ron had gone away to school at ucla. >> i thought it was some kind of a prank and -- so i called his apartment to find out if he was there.

and i was told that-- he had been dropped off at a bus stop and he was going to a meeting at ucla, and he hadn't returned. and this was almost midnight. >> and this is his roommates telling you this. >> his roommate telling me that, yeah. >> reporter: the next morning, ron still hadn't returned to his apartment, but his father did receive another call. >> he said, "unless you give us $100,000 by 5:00, he will die." and at that time, i really did become worried and i called the police. >> reporter: police tapped their telephone line, anticipating another ransom call. but when the phone rang, it was not the kidnapper. it was detective rick jackson. >> asking if ron would have worn some earrings and a pendant. and he had done that. so then they came to see us. and told us that his body had been found. >> reporter: it was the body found in the manson tunnel.

their only son, ron. he was just 21. >> is there any way to understand -- anybody can understand what that was like? >> it's devastating. >> reporter: ron baker was a junior at ucla. bright, popular, and as his big sister patty remembers -- >> he was a really good person, genuine person. very light-hearted, good sense a humor. liked to play practical jokes. but at the same time, he was, like, a straight "a" student, so -- >> reporter: ron was a deep thinker, too. his major was astrophysics. he was curious about the world around him. maybe that's why he also developed an interest in a particular religion that went beyond his own methodist faith. >> anything that i saw that he -- believed about wicca or, you know, was into with wicca to

me just seemed part of his learning and trying to gain knowledge about different things. >> reporter: wicca -- the trendy, and much misunderstood, new pagan religion. white magic, naturalism, harmless really. ron was intrigued. he joined a club at ucla that explored the metaphysical. >> and specifically, they were called the mystics circle. and they had meetings, and they had guest speakers on the occult- related topics. >> reporter: was ron baker's death a result of witchcraft, some satanic human sacrifice? suddenly, the murder in the manson tunnel was a very hot story. >> now investigators wonder if there was a connection to the murder of the young ucla student ron baker whose body was found in the train tunnel behind us. >> and what stood out to me the most was how many reporters were on the story. now, what made it significant? the public interest, and -- and what happens when a kid, who -- who has the kind of background as baker, goes to a school like ucla, ends up dead in a tunnel up in the hills above chatsworth.

>> reporter: so how did ron baker end up dead in that tunnel? and why? maybe there was something to this occult connection. >> on the date of the summer solstice, which is a day of celebration for many in the various pagan philosophies, we didn't know what to make of it at first. >> reporter: but, 20 years on, it isn't dreams of the occult that have wormed their way into detective jackson's more troubled memory. it's where the trail led when it left the grimy pentagrams on the wall of the manson tunnel. >> coming up, another cryptic phone call in the middle of the night. [ male announcer ] learn about a free trial offer from abilify. if you're taking an antidepressant and still feel depressed,

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>> reporter: this was 1990. this city was definitely kind of like a murder city, usa kind of feel to it. there was all kinds of crime. >> reporter: michael connelly is one of america's best-selling crime novelist, but in 1990 he was a newspaper reporter, one of the media herd swarming all over the ron baker murder in the man son tunnel. there's a possibility of cult involvement, and pentagrams and a dark tunnel. it just adds another dimension of the edge that los angeles has. the edge being that, this is a place where anything can happen. 24 hours into the investigation, local television had picked up the occult angle. >> but channel 4 news has learned he was involved in occult organizations both on and off the ucla campus. >> reporter: and, in fact, initially at least, it was the one tantalizing lead the lapd

detectives could go on. there were no suspects, but there were two people who had seen baker a few hours before he was killed -- his roommates. maybe they could help. >> first thing we wanted to do was go over to the apartment. ron was a ucla student. duncan martinez and nathan blalock were his other two roommates. >> reporter: nathan had been living with baker for about six months. perhaps he picked up that tough guy look of his from his time in the military. behind his face he was calm, quiet, polite. he'd gotten himself a job as a part time security guard. duncan martinez, on the other hand was very talkative, friendly, charming. and he seemed very much at ease, talking to these two inquiring cops. duncan had put in some time as a marine reservist, but as a roommate he helped pay the rent with a variety of odd jobs, while he made plans to someday go to college.

he and ron had been close friends for years. >> he was at our home several times and participated in family gatherings. >> reporter: seemed like a nice fellow? >> seemed like a nice guy, yeah. >> reporter: when detectives arrived at the apartment duncan was there to greet them, as always eager to talk, and ready to help. >> he seemed upset. kind of disbelieving. but was always cooperative. >> reporter: the other roommate nathan blalock was out of town at a family reunion, but his girl friend diane harrison was there. she had been in the apartment the afternoon ron was last seen alive. >> after dinner, duncan and nathan were going to be taking ron to the bus stop so he wouldn't have to walk 'cause ron didn't drive. ron intended to take the bus to the ucla campus in westwood for a meeting with his mystic circle group. nathan and duncan were planning to play basketball after dropping him off. detectives looked around the apartment.

it was obvious, all the roommates were interested in wicca. >> the apartment itself, had an altar, candles, the pentagram, all the wicca stuff there. large knives that supposedly were used in their ritual. >> reporter: makes the eyebrows go up a little when you see that. >> absolutely. absolutely. we're certainly not ruling at the possibility that baker's death is cult related. >> reporter: but the occult connection was only a theory and something the baker family wasn't buying. ron, they pointed out, was still a member in good standing of a student methodist group. his so-called interest in wicca, they said, was being overblown by the media. >> it just didn't make any sense to me. he didn't give up anything with

his belief in the church when he was into that. the funeral was held at the same methodist church ron had attended most of his life. it was deeply emotional, especially when duncan martinez delivered a stirring eulogy. >> he was the most friendliest sweetest guy there. i miss him a lot, too. and i just hope that it's something i can get over because i love him. >> reporter: but as mourners gathered here, almost a week after the murder, the mystery of ron baker's death was opaque, the outlook for a solution, bleak. the detectives still had no suspects, no motive, no murder weapon. although, there were a couple of clues. not much to go on, but at least it was something. for one thing, ron was drunk at the time of his murder, his blood alcohol three times the legal limit, though he wasn't known as a drinker. and also, they found blood underneath ron's fingernails. drunk or not, he must have fought for his life. >> there was no dna at the time, per se. all we could do was type and match the blood. it was ab positive. >> reporter: pretty rare kind of

blood? >> 4% of the population have ab positive. >> reporter: 4% far from dna precison, but enough to narrow a list of suspects, if they could find any. but, with no suspect, they went about the process of determining who could not have been the murderer. they returned to the apartment, to talk with ron's roommates, duncan martinez and nathan blalock, who by now was now back in town. >> we had gone through a checklist of, "okay, how can we eliminate these guys." >> reporter: nathan and duncan re-told the very same story -- they had dropped ron off a nearby bus stop for a trip to ucla. but he never came home. >> the two of them were their own alibis for what they did, from the moment they left until they got back late that night on the day of the evening of the murder. >> reporter: which, seemed to eliminate the roommates. but there was something in the apartment that seemed a little odd. >> we found that ron hadn't taken his backpack, which he took everywhere.

he also hadn't taken his keys. >> reporter: and something duncan said, also seemed strange. after hearing ron had been kidnapped, he and nathan conducted their own search for him. >> he told us that he and nathan went to chatsworth park near the tunnel to look for baker. >> reporter: why would anybody go look for their friend at chatsworth park near the tunnel, if he was kidnapped? >> it didn't -- it didn't add up. >> reporter: intriguing, but hardly incriminating. this duncan martinez character was quite a talker, answering questions the detectives did not ask. was he telling the truth? >> we offered him a polygraph. nathan blaylock refused to take the test. but duncan martinez was happy to cooperate. said he wanted to clear his name. >> he came up deceptive in every key question asked. >> reporter: deceptive? but lie detector tests are not always reliable, they're more an investigative tool, which in this case may have backfired.

>> a few days later, we got a call from an attorney. duncan had retained an attorney. and that we wouldn't be questioning him anymore. >> reporter: anyway, the idea that duncan martinez and nathan blalock, ron baker's roommates and friends, were mixed up in his murder seemed as farfetched as, well, black magic. >> it just didn't make sense that these two guys would do that to their roommate. >> reporter: and the bakers felt the same way. >> i remember my dad told me, frank garcia had called him and kind of asked him some questions about duncan, and mentioned that they were possibly looking at him. and you know we just kind of didn't believe it. >> reporter: and without any further evidence, the investigation stalled. interest cooled. the satanic idea suddenly seemed farfetched. at some point the media started to stand down a little bit, because they thought, you know, this is not gonna go the occult way. then, a month after the summer

solstice. middle of the night. >> about 2:00 in the morning, my partner and i received a phone call from our boss, say, "hey, duncan martinez just made a phone call to a friend of his in the middle of the night. said he's being held hostage." >> they got me like in a warehouse in north hollywood! i don't know what's going on. oh -- i'm going to try and get out of here! holy -- [ dial tone ] >> reporter: coming up -- first ron baker. now his roommate duncan? >> possibly whoever killed ron had gotten him, too. >> reporter: the case was about to take an unusual turn. two suspects no one imagined when "cracked -- the mystery at man s manson tunnel" continues. every hour... one ms to improve our technology and your safety. it's an investment that's helped toyota

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>> reporter: the trains never stopped rolling through the manson tunnel that summer of 1990. but who committed the crime within its dark walls remained a mystery. now, just a few weeks after the apparent kidnapping and murder of ron baker, here, the lapd was dealing with another seemingly similar case. a cryptic phone call from baker's roommate duncan martinez, suggesting that he too had been kidnapped -- and his life was in danger. this time, the call was recorded. >> they got me in like in a warehouse thing in north hollywood. [ sigh ] i'm going to try and get out of here! >> reporter: had duncan martinez suddenly gone from murder suspect to kidnap victim?

>> possibly whoever killed ron had gotten him too. >> reporter: maybe -- or was it, wondered the detectives, something else entirely? >> the kidnapping phone call that he left was a total farce. i think the motive for him making that phone call was, if he's kidnapped, then we'll stop looking for him. >> reporter: maybe duncan didn't figure that anybody would bother checking where that call came from. >> we traced that phone call to a pay phone at the las vegas airport. so, that's a pretty good indication that he's kind of floating about and the pressure was on him and he was rabbitting. >> we would like to eliminate him if he does not have any involvement in this case and as long as he remains gone, we cannot eliminate him. >> reporter: then, about the same time, an intriguing clue turned up in ron baker's bank account. a check. >> it was written to duncan martinez. it wasn't a lot of money. we got the hard copy of that check, and we had handwriting

done, and it was a forged signature for ron baker. >> reporter: a hundred nine bucks hardly seemed like a motive for murder -- still detectives were convinced that martinez at least, must know something about how and why ron baker met his end back there in the tunnel. but getting martinez to explain it all, well, now, that would now be impossible. >> he was gone, missing. we had no idea where he was. >> reporter: weeks passed. no more phone calls, or forged checks or crazy reports regarding the elusive martinez. >> after hearing nothing from him, we talked to duncan's family and then we still worked on nathan, too. >> reporter: oh yes nathan -- nathan blalock -- remember him? he was the other roommate of ron baker and close pal of duncan martinez. during duncan's disappearance, he too left the apartment in l.a. and was living quietly in rural riverside county, with his girlfriend diane harrison. >> i didn't think nathan was involved, period. you know, he's a very nice man. he's not gonna do something like that.

that's not nathan. >> reporter: and for awhile, nathan didn't even seem to mind when diane told her friends about the murder in the manson tunnel. >> and then nathan started to be more subdued. and he's like, "diane, if you could just not talk about it anymore." and that's not like nathan. >> reporter: maybe that's because detectives did want to talk about the murder. they paid nathan a visit and again questioned him about what happened that summer solstice. >> nathan was always as cool as a cucumber. but wasn't gonna tell us any -- he was gonna stick to the story. i mean, we even said, "hey, if he's lyin', he is the best liar." >> reporter: and nathan also insisted he had no idea where his pal duncan martinez was. by now, the baker family had taken a little less rosy view of ron's roommates, especially his long time friend duncan. so one day, while ron's father was rummaging around his garage, he discovered those boxes he had so graciously allowed duncan to store there.

>> as i was looking through the box i discovered this note -- of things to do. and one of the things on that note was to get a new identity. and to sell his car. it sounded like he was, you know, getting ready to leave the country or something. >> reporter: maybe he had. six months since ron baker turned up dead in that train tunnel -- and a once hot murder investigation was turning ice cold. >> well, you feel rather let down and helpless -- you know, that -- like what more can you do? >> reporter: at the lapd, there were new cases to solve and criminals to catch but detectives stayed on the case. jackson was especially committed and remained consumed with finding ron baker's killers. >> you go into robbery/homicide, they all have glass topped desks, and -- and a lot of them have their pictures of their family, and -- and things like that under the glass.

he has pictures of people who are dead, who were victims. and he -- he's still working on their case, whether actively or in his mind -- he doesn't forget. >> reporter: if the detectives knew anything, it was that the answers about the murder of ron baker must somehow go through ron's friend, duncan martinez. but he stayed gone. and then -- it was about about a year and a half later and hundreds of miles away from l.a. -- a traffic policeman happened to notice a violation. and a dead case was reborn. >> coming up, a missing man is found and a plan is hatched. an undercover operation to catch a killer. >> this is hollywood stuff here. i can really pull this off. >> reporter: would it work? tria

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♪ >> we think about some things that would have been and aren't. what he would have made of his life. whether we would have had more grandchildren, things like that. >> reporter: there was no scale big enough -- no way to measure -- the baker family's loss in the manson tunnel that summer solstice of 1990. nor any way to know what happened -- unless ron baker's friend,

duncan martinez, suddenly showed up and told investigators what he knew about ron's murder. >> somebody's gotta run into this guy out there. he's gotta turn up someplace. >> reporter: and then, one day, the fbi was on the phone asking detectives if they knew a young man who'd turned up in utah. >> he was stopped in a traffic violation -- in the salt lake city area and had produced a driver's license -- under the name of jonathan wayne miller. so the officer that stopped him for the violation ran that name, and it came back with a warrant, a federal warrant for -- fraudulent passport application. >> reporter: jonathan wayne miller? the name, it turned out, came from a tombstone. and the man behind the fraudulent passport? duncan martinez. he had tried to flee the country with a fake passport, but was busted and only got as far as utah. >> we were ecstatic. and we couldn't believe it. you know, after a year and a half almost here he is in salt lake city, in custody. >> the attorney calls us for duncan and says, "hey, he may wanna talk to you guys 'cause

he's tired of being on the run." >> reporter: jackson and garcia rushed to salt lake for a face to face with duncan and his lawyer to discuss the murder. but before any talking, first a deal. the terms were surprisingly -- simple. >> you tell us what happened. we'll listen to what you have to say. we can not use anything against you that you tell us as a result of this interview. that's -- that was the agreement. >> reporter: that sounds like immunity. >> no. immunity is, "we will never prosecute you for anything. >> reporter: so it's only the evidence he gives to you -- >> right. and that was the agreement. >> they kinda call it "king for a day." you can tell us a story and we can't use it against you. and it happens. >> reporter: but there was one other condition to this "deal." >> he was specifically, emphatically told by us, "you cannot discuss this with anyone, except your attorney." and he was told that on more than one occasion. >> reporter: and he agreed. so, now, far removed from the horror of that summer solstice night in the manson tunnel,

duncan martinez confessed that it was he and nathan blalock who dreamed up a scheme involving their very own roommate ron baker. >> they were trying to get money. they had seen a kidnapping show on television that had been foiled by something that went wrong. and they start doing their talking and then -- >> reporter: "we can do -- >> "finally" -- >> reporter: "better than that." >> "we can do better." and it started -- you know, each step was going up, up, up, making it better, better, better for this plot. and they opted to use ron as the victim. >> reporter: so, instead of driving ron to the bus stop that night, they drove out to chatsworth -- to the railroad tracks. somehow they ensured he knocked back enough beers to get thoroughly drunk. and then took him for a dark walk through the manson tunnel. >> and he admitted, "yeah -- i went along with this but i really didn't think anything was gonna happen. and then we're walking back through the tunnel and next thing you know, nathan jumps on ron and stabs him a bunch a times. >> i think it was just a thrill killing. now, could martinez have pulled this off by himself? he didn't have the -- the guts to kill baker.

i don't think he did. but when 'ya put the two personalities together, blaylock and martinez, now you got the dynamite and the fuse. >> reporter: they saw he was dead, said martinez, and they ran. they washed off the blood with beer, went back to the apartment. and when the police saw through duncan's glib story telling, his made-up alibis, he ran again. eventually to salt lake city, where he enrolled at the university of utah. >> you gotta realize that duncan's motive now -- it's to save his own butt. we told duncan, "you have to help us to prove that nathan blalock is the killer. that he's the actual stabber." >> reporter: protected to some extent from prosecution by his "deal", duncan agreed to help build the case against his

former roommate and partner in crime, nathan blalock. he also took a blood test to see if his type matched the a- b blood found under ron baker's fingernails. it did not. >> we haven't lost sight of the fact that martinez is involved in this. but our focus has changed to blalock. >> reporter: unlike duncan, nathan blalock wasn't hard to find. he was sitting in jail for trying to rob a bank. >> we got a search warrant for nathan blalock's blood. and that blood came back a-b positive. it's not a definite match, like you would on a dna. 4% of the population have it, so that was close enough for us. >> reporter: but it wasn't close enough to file murder charges. detectives needed nathan to somehow incriminate himself. and they needed duncan's help to do it. >> and duncan agreed to engage nathan in conversation. so we put the call in. >> dude, if this comes down, i mean it's not just you. it's me too, you know. >> yeah, i know, >> i mean. i may not have been an executioner, but i'm still going to get pegged. hm, what are you going to say if they do come back?" >> um, i have nothing to say about that. um, i don't know if this line's

secure or not. >> what duncan told us is being corroborated. not maybe every single thing, but the fact that they were involved and that nathan was the stabber became pretty apparent. >> i'm sittin' here and they're about to arrest me for something i didn't do. >> they weren't going to arrest you. >> dude, it seemed like it. i sit there and i watch somebody get stabbed and i'm going to get arrested and go to jail for it! dude that's not cool you know." >> okay. >> they can't say, you know, "yes, nathan did it, right?" but they know we were there." >> they can't say anyone did it, you know. and i wish you'd quit using my name on such an unsecure line. >> but detectives wanted more, so duncan now agreed to wear a wire and actually meet with nathan in prison. >> i think he was a little nervous when he went in there. but going back, you -- [ laughter ] have to understand duncan's personality. to him, it's this -- "hey man, this is -- hollywood stuff here, man.

i can really pull this off. >> "how could you do that? i don't know. >> dude it just happened. it just happened. but we're not gonna worry about it, dude." >> reporter: there was one more incriminating phone conversation between duncan and nathan, giving the cops just what they needed. and then they dropped him off at the university, where, thanks to his deal, he would resume college life, as if he'd never harmed a hair on ron baker's head. >> he got out of the car, we shook hands with him, thanked him for the work he'd done. and he said -- "you know, it's too bad we met under these circumstances. i -- i -- i'd love to hang out with you guys." >> reporter: duncan martinez was literally getting away with murder. and the life he went back to -- was so rewarding -- he'd be crazy to mess that up. coming up, could duncan keep his part of the deal by keeping quiet? >> he told his stories and you didn't know where his story telling and his adventures would take you. >> reporter: turns out getting away with murder might not be so easy. [ matt ashworth ] the things that make us americans

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>> reporter: salt lake city. and here is the university of utah, a green and man cured campus of some 20,000 students, one of whom was duncan martinez. in just a few short months, duncan had gone from big-time murder suspect to big man on campus. >> when i first met duncan, it

seemed as though he just dropped into salt lake city from another planet. he had a very magnetic personality, really drew people to him. >> reporter: melissa bean was a sorority girl then at the university. she's now an attorney in town and remembers dating duncan after he arrived on campus. >> i think i was attracted to duncan in part because he was different. he was really funny and told these stories. and you kind of wanted to be with duncan to go along for the ride. >> reporter: seemingly free and clear from being indicted in the ron baker murder, duncan joined a fraternity and attended classes. >> duncan, for all intents and purposes, was going to get away with this. again, going back to that the deal that we made with him, nothing he said could be used. >> reporter: it seemed simple enough. no talking. no case. no charges. but this was, after all, duncan martinez. >> he has to talk. he's gotta be the star of the conversation.

that's -- that's duncan martinez, you know. >> reporter: so for the moment detectives focused on nailing duncan's pal nathan blalock, who was sitting in jail on bank robbery charges. armed with those secret recordings detectives paid blalock a visit, hoping to coax a confession by playing the tapes of his conversations with duncan. >> i remember saying to nathan, "you're saying you weren't involved, but there's somebody tellin' us that you were." he says, "well, they're lyin'." i said, "well, you wanna hear what this person says?" and he says, "yeah, yeah i'd love to." >> this is something you did that's [ bleep ] me up. and i don't know what to do about it." >> get a religion man, ask god for forgiveness, that's what i've done. >> how can you ask forgiveness for something like this? >> it doesn't make it better, it doesn't make it worse. but it makes me able to function and continue to do what i have to do. >> and as soon as he hears his voice and hears what he's saying, and he knows who he's talkin' to, his head went just like this.

and he sat there for about two minutes, didn't say a word. i almost felt bad. i mean, we had him so badly. and we said, "you wanna hear more?" and he just nodded. >> he was your friend, too, i thought. >> it's not that it didn't happen. it's not that it didn't happen. you accept it and you deal with it. and sooner or later, it'll stop bothering you." >> devastating stuff. devastating. >> and at that point, he's kind of losin' faith on his ability to hold out and not tell us what happened. and there's a lull. and i believe i'm the one that said -- how many times did you stab him? >> twice, maybe. it just happened. >> but do you remember him pissing you off? >> you know i had to have done it out of anger, i wouldn't do it calmly. >> and that was -- the break right there. his confession. >> reporter: finally, two and half years after ron baker's murder, detectives had what they wanted. >> blalock is arrested. the case is put together.

and blalock is indicted on first degree murder with special circumstances. >> reporter: it looked like a solid case. at least one of the two would be held accountable for the crime here at the manson tunnel. but not everybody was happy with how justice was evolving. >> i thought that it was horrible. i didn't like it at all. i mean, i was happy in one sense that, you know, they would get information against nathan. but, you know, i think in our minds, duncan was equally responsible. >> we know now that duncan was involved. but you don't have enough evidence. and we thought maybe down the road, something will come toward us where we can charge him. >> reporter: but how? with nathan blalock taking the murder rap, duncan martinez could look forward to a bright and shining future. except -- there was one person standing in his way. coming up -- the man who talked

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reporter: there's a saying in police work that some justice is better than no justice. some three years after the manson tunnel murder of young

ron baker, that's exactly where detectives were. >> nathan's in custody now. he's been charged. duncan, go off and live your life. but we're not giving you immunity, you know. anything you say -- >> reporter: and that was clear to him? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: he just had to shut up now? >> well, it was clear to his attorney. >> reporter: that's how it would end. a murder one rap for nathan, a college degree for duncan. but -- maybe it was the air in salt lake city, maybe it was simple greed or arrogant foolishness. near downtown, there is a bicycle shop, which was just too tempting a target for a certain local cyclist who decided he needed some parts. a two-bit bungled break-in. the thief was caught red handed. salt lake city detective jim pryor. >> the burglar was ultimately identified to me as a gentleman by the name of duncan martinez. >> reporter: yes, that very same duncan martinez. >> we'd gone to the residence with duncan.

looking for his identification, i found a business card from a detective that -- the lapd robbery homicide unit. >> reporter: a detective's business card lying around is enough to spark anybody's interest, especially when it's another cop who finds it. so after booking duncan, detective pryor called detective jackson. >> i kind of laughed. and i said "yeah, i know a guy named duncan martinez." >> can't get him to talk about this crime, see if he'll tell you about it. >> reporter: duncan was released on bail and went home, where a phone message from detective pryor was waiting. >> the next day, duncan did manage to call back, which led to a conversation that we ended up recording. >> reporter: after a just a few minutes of coaxing, duncan, like always, began to talk. >> i witnessed my best friend kill my best friend. um, and i didn't know what to

do. >> and he started describing having gone through a railroad tunnel with two other individuals. and that an altercation occurred between the two other subjects. >> nathan was sitting on top of ron. ron was just struggling trying to get him off him. "why are you doing this to me. why are you doing this to me? what have i ever done to you?" >> reporter: and it was exactly the story duncan had told lapd detectives, except for one chilling detail, that he had not revealed until now. >> i told nathan, "you know, dude, you got to finish him off or something because you can't leave him like that, and so he slit his throat." >> did he just say, what i thought he said? maybe it was bottled up inside him. he just wanted to get it off his chest. and, boy, didn't he. >> reporter: news of duncan's interview traveled fast back to the lapd. >> it was like an early christmas gift. and i was thrilled. this was independent of stuff that was told to us. >> reporter: he broke the deal,

right? >> he broke the deal. >> reporter: duncan martinez was arrested in june, 1994, charged with first degree murder, just like his pal and partner nathan blalock. nathan was tried first and quickly convicted. he was sentenced to life without parole. now duncan would have his own day in court. prosecutors offered duncan one more deal. instead of murder one, which could send him to prison for life, duncan could plea to a lesser charge. >> he did assist us. >> reporter: what was the deal? >> and the lowest i wanted to go, personally, and i made this known to the d.a.'s office was a top-level manslaughter. and then i wanted to add on some other things to get it up, personally, i wanted to get it up to 25 or 30 years. >> reporter: of which he'd serve 20, maybe 15, 20? >> yeah, probably, 12 and a half. >> reporter: ultimately, the d.a.'s office offered duncan a deal for second degree murder with a sentence of 15 years to life. and duncan turned it down! >> he had people, including jackson, telling him, you know, what would be the better path to take in this -- in this decision. and he rolled the dice. >> reporter: prosecutor anne ingalls took the case to trial. >> he had a very good attorney,

worked very good in argument. >> reporter: on one hand, as duncan's lawyer argued, he hadn't done the stabbing. in fact, he had helped the cops catch and convict the actual killer, nathan blalock. but on the other -- >> under the law, if you aid and abet or co-conspirator, then you are just as liable as the person that actually does the killing. i think martinez was the brains behind the operation. >> reporter: and the jury agreed duncan martinez was convicted of first-degree murder. as the judge read his sentence, duncan, for once, was speechless, especially upon hearing the three words he never expected to hear, "life without parole." >> that was his choice, he had a chance to take a second degree murder, and at least be eligible. and it bit him big. >> reporter: the trains still

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